3 ms·

I don't trust Microsoft much at all, privacy-wise, Windows-wise or otherwise not-being-evil-wise, but in my view, Warner Bros Interactive is the combination of

I don't trust Microsoft much at all, privacy-wise, Windows-wise or otherwise not-being-evil-wise, but in my view, Warner Bros Interactive is the combination of the bad elements of the film industry with the depressing mediocrity of a second tier game developer/publisher. But they bought and hollowed out the maker of the favorite online game of my childhood, turning it into a mobile game developer, renegged on releasing the server so the community could keep it going, and refused negotiations to sell the IP, which is pretty worthless AFAICT. So I may be biased. If this goes through, I need to figure out who to talk to to see if we can recover it from whatever basement it's bit rotting in.

WorldMaker 6y ago
It wouldn't be the first time Microsoft was involved with Asheron's Call, they originally published it after all. Microsoft has a bad/unlucky track record with MMO development/sales, but one of the better with handling the consequences. Turbine was allowed to move on, to keep their IP, to continue to be Turbine, when they exited their Microsoft partnership. The MMO Allegiance was open sourced by Microsoft and given to its community. I can't tell you that Microsoft would 100% do the right thing if they bought WB Games Boston and managed to get the Asheron's Call license with it (and that's a weird if, because who knows what WB's deal with Standing Stone was; WB might not even remember the way some of their licenses get lost), but I can tell you there's a lot more hope than AT&T (WB) continuing to sit on it (if they are the ones sitting on it).
- boardwaalk 6y ago
  One can only hope Microsoft would do a good thing. The saddest thing would be if it was all just lost. I hadn't heard of Allegiance; that's interesting. [Aside: I do wonder where all the relevant artifacts would be kept. Do they have a vault with floor to ceiling shelving with all sorts of old stuff? Or is it all in the "cloud"?]
  - WorldMaker 6y ago
    If it is kept somewhere, it is likely still tape backups, which might indeed just be in a nice library room collecting dust on shelves. Though these days it might be "cloud" tape backups. (Most of the cloud providers offer "cold storage" that is slow and expensive to retrieve when you need it back, as that cold storage is just as likely to be tape backups and it takes time to retrieve a tape from a shelf, unspool that tape, and read from it.)

WorldMaker 6y ago

It wouldn't be the first time Microsoft was involved with Asheron's Call, they originally published it after all. Microsoft has a bad/unlucky track record with MMO development/sales, but one of the better with handling the consequences. Turbine was allowed to move on, to keep their IP, to continue to be Turbine, when they exited their Microsoft partnership. The MMO Allegiance was open sourced by Microsoft and given to its community. I can't tell you that Microsoft would 100% do the right thing if they bought WB Games Boston and managed to get the Asheron's Call license with it (and that's a weird if, because who knows what WB's deal with Standing Stone was; WB might not even remember the way some of their licenses get lost), but I can tell you there's a lot more hope than AT&T (WB) continuing to sit on it (if they are the ones sitting on it).

boardwaalk 6y ago
One can only hope Microsoft would do a good thing. The saddest thing would be if it was all just lost. I hadn't heard of Allegiance; that's interesting. [Aside: I do wonder where all the relevant artifacts would be kept. Do they have a vault with floor to ceiling shelving with all sorts of old stuff? Or is it all in the "cloud"?]
- WorldMaker 6y ago
  If it is kept somewhere, it is likely still tape backups, which might indeed just be in a nice library room collecting dust on shelves. Though these days it might be "cloud" tape backups. (Most of the cloud providers offer "cold storage" that is slow and expensive to retrieve when you need it back, as that cold storage is just as likely to be tape backups and it takes time to retrieve a tape from a shelf, unspool that tape, and read from it.)